Activity reports show what has been completed, scheduled, documented, or submitted. They do not always show what it took to keep that activity moving.

Communication may require more effort. Handoffs may become less distinct. Participant follow-through may become harder to interpret. Staff may rely on increasingly frequent workarounds.

The study continues.

But what is changing beneath the continuation?

Optique is developing a model that observes the relationships among:

• communication;

• handoffs;

• participant follow-through;

• workload pressure;

• synchronization;

• operational drift.

The purpose is not to reduce complex research operations to one score or metric. It is to help sponsors ask better questions about what is changing beneath visible work.